These important finds were carried out on over half a million ecommerce shoppers and the findings are incredibly shocking.

1. Product sizes, colours and quantity confuses your visitor and increase the chanes of a lost sale:

Selling a product that comes in various colours and sizes requires your visitor to make a selection, your visitor has to perform an action and it can get confusing.
For example if you are selling an iPod, that is available in 4 different colours and 4 different storage options, you should make the selection process incredibly simple.
If someone cannot figure out how to add a pink 8gb iPod to their basket and they end up attempting to do it several times, they can end up with multiple products in their basket, products that they don’t want.
This WILL cause your visitors to abandon their checkout and result in you losing the sale.

A simple fix: Put your product selection process in simple steps, an example for an iPod would be: allow them to first select the product, step 2 allow them to select the colour, step 3 allow them to select the capacity.

Do not presume your visitor has read the order instructions, this can lead them to get confused and leaving your shopping cart, instead, make the process for them simpler and step by step to avoid and confusion.

2. Images play an important factor in the likelihood of a visitor purchasing your particular product

A text description can only sell a product so much, after that, or even before that, the visitor needs to see a picture, or multiple pictures, of the product to ensure that they first have the right product in mind and to get an understanding of the product, how it looks and to get an overall better feel for the product.
Images create visual stimulation; they should be powerful and present the item in a strong and desirable way so that the visitor has no other option but to purchase your product.
Think of Apple and what they did with the mac book air on their TV adverts: showcasing the product in an envelope and they showing its slim line from all angles before using the simple words “the world’s thinnest notebook” – It creates desirability and it creates it simply.

A simple fix: Use multiple images of your product, from all the best angles, the front, side, top and even behind! Make your product look desirable, If it’s an item of clothing then style it up with other pieces, don’t just put on a single photo of a scarf, dress it up with a coat and other accessories to really make the item stand out.

Do not underestimate the power of images, sometimes no image is better than a ridiculously poor image, look around at websites such as amazon or pc world, look how they make their products look desirable and use multiple images from all angles. Images can also harm you, especially if they are poor and add no value what so ever, so get the images right!

3. Lose the distractions:

When a visitor lands at your page and they don’t purchase that’s usually because they are getting distracted by something on your website: an advert or a link to another page, it distracts them from what they were doing, takes them away from the page and puts their focus elsewhere. Don’t distract!

A simple fix: If you do need to have links to other pages, e.g. a page to get a discount code or to find out about shipping costs, then do it smarter, don’t take the visitor away from the page, open the link in a new window or tab, that way the original page is still there and easily accessible with no effort or thinking required.

Track where your visitors are going, what they are doing once they click on to a product page and then end up not buying. You will often find that the reason you lost the sale is because something on your site distracted them and took them to another page – monitor where your visitors go, what they click and what effect this has on sales.

And now I bring you to the #1 shocking behaviour that shocked me and the experts who performed this test:

4. Your shopping basket is actually a wish list!

I thought this was crazy too, until I read the research …. You need to closely monitor what’s being added to your shopping cart and not being purchased, it’s probably not down to price either. Sure, we all open multiple eCommerce websites, add the same products to the carts across them and see which works out the cheapest, but research has found that users are using their cart as a virtual wish list, kind of like pintrest, so use this vital information to see what users are looking to purchase.

A simple fix: Unfortunately there is no fix for this, but the information you can gain from this is incredibly value, it’s a look into the mind of your customers, it’s the only place to get a snap shot of what they are looking to buy, you can then use this information to see what products have potential vs. those that don’t.

You can track this vital information in your shopping cart software and use it to your advantage; it tells you an incredible amount of information about that individual shopper and it gives you leverage to use targeted advertising to upsell these products to them at a later date. Remember though: The EU cookie law, if someone refuses cookies then you can’t track, target advertise or upsell them at a later date

I am the director of Alt Web Design Ltd. With over 10 years’ experience in web design and programming I ensure that your website is optimized to improve your business, sales and profits. I create websites that rank at the top of Google and can be easily updated by you.

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I’ve recently come across a report which listed some shocking behaviours that your customers perform whilst browsing your ecommerce website. These important finds were carried out on over half a million ecommerce shoppers and the findings are incredibly shocking. 1. Product sizes, colours and quantity confuses your visitor and increase the chanes of a lost …

I’ve recently come across a report which listed some shocking behaviours that your customers perform whilst browsing your ecommerce website. These important finds were carried out on over half a million ecommerce shoppers and the findings are incredibly shocking. 1. Product sizes, colours and quantity confuses your visitor and increase the chanes of a lost …

I’ve recently come across a report which listed some shocking behaviours that your customers perform whilst browsing your ecommerce website. These important finds were carried out on over half a million ecommerce shoppers and the findings are incredibly shocking. 1. Product sizes, colours and quantity confuses your visitor and increase the chanes of a lost …

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